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Tuesday, November 28, 2017

That's Not How It Works

I received a flyer in the mail from a local
non-denominational church advertising their services for the holiday season.
These mass mailings aren’t all that unique, many churches, Protestant and
Catholic, send them out around Christmas and Easter as a way of reaching out to
people who may be looking for a place to worship. But this flyer was a little
different than others that I’ve seen and it got me thinking.

Here’s part of the text from the flyer (I changed the name
of the church):

Go ahead. Sleep in on
Sunday.

Whether you like the idea of sleeping in, want to free up
some extra weekend time for that family gathering at the in-laws, or are just
heading out of town on the weekends. Whatever the reason, find some extra peace
from the holiday hustle with us on Thursdays at our Early Weekend Service.

We’ll have the same great kids environments, same great
coffee, same great music and teaching you’ve come to expect from Relevant
Church…Now on Thursdays, too.

Obviously this particular faith community is trying to make
themselves accessible and non-threatening—they have “easy exits” after all.
They’re trying to be sensitive to the fact that many people are incredibly busy
between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Still, I can’t help but wonder about the
message they’re sending, which is basically you can have Jesus on your terms
alone.

Unfortunately…

The Catholic Church celebrated the solemnity of Christ the
King on Sunday. It’s a day to remember that Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord
of Lords. A day to recall that he has invited me to enter into his Kingdom, the
realm where his will is done “on earth as it is in heaven”. It is a time to
reflect on the reality that I am a servant of the King and I serve Him on His
terms, not mine. When Jesus called the disciples it was not at their
convenience, but at the cost of their lives. They dropped their nets, walked
away from their livelihoods and followed.

Dietrich Bonheoffer wrote about the idea of cheap grace
versus costly grace. He said, “Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves.
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance,
baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession...Cheap grace
is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus
Christ, living and incarnate.” Cheap grace is God on my terms. It is safe and
controllable. Non-threatening.

Of the alternative, costly grace, Bonheoffer wrote, “It is
costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man
the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it
justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of
his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be
cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too
dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the
Incarnation of God.”

We are living in a time of great upheaval, confusion, and
uncertainty. More and more people are abandoning faith in God than ever before.
Scandals and scandalous behaviors dominate the headlines. I don’t think that
good coffee and a hipster Jesus who won’t ask too much of us are the answers to
these problems, and neither did St. John Paul II who said, “The Church needs
saints. All are called to holiness, and holy people alone can renew humanity.”

To quote John Paul II’s friend, Ronald Reagan, we need to
raise “a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably
clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people.” The problem
with trying so much to look like the world to attract the world is that you don’t
stand out enough for the world to see you. We do not have the luxury of
accepting Jesus on our terms. We are called to holiness, love, and sacrifice.As I pondered how this church flyer was trying to make it
easier on people I was struck by the contrast to my Catholic faith which throws
in a holy day of obligation, December 8th for the Immaculate
Conception of Mary, right in the middle of this busy time of the year. The
Advent season itself is a challenge to be different from the world. It is
supposed to be like a little Lent, a time of penance and self-examination. A
time to slow down and ponder in our hearts the mystery of the Incarnation and
to look forward with expectation to Christ’s return. My God does not ask a lot
of me, He asks for all of me. To be a disciple is to leave my nets—my desires,
my plans, my will—and follow after Him.

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about me

I'm Tom Ponchak. I received a degree in theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville. After graduation I worked as a parish youth minister in Maryland and a high school religion teacher in Michigan.
In 1997, my wife and I left the Catholic Church and joined the Association of Vineyard Churches, a non-denominational, evangelical faith community. I was the founding pastor of Matthew's House Vineyard in central Florida.
After ten years away from Catholicism, and longing for the Eucharist, I returned to the Church in 2006. I am currently the Director of Adult Faith Formation at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel parish in Indiana. I am also a member of the Domestic expression of the Brothers and Sisters of Charity.